September 25, 2005
Two heroes in one day
I kept wondering as I toured the Basquiat exhibit if the school district organized field trips for the kids from South Central and Compton. And wouldn't it be great if the MOCA organization had offered it free to the kids from the Watts Cultural Center?
I was so glad we went dowstairs first to see the archived interview with Jean-Michel beacuse he said a couple things that were very significant to me. One was that William Burroughs was his favorite "living writer". Viewing his work, to me, was like reading a Burroughs book. Being inside his head. (Also, after we left I felt like we had been in the middle of a huge complicated math problem and JMB had written the solution.)
He also talked about being homeless and from that point of view, everybody who ate in restaurants must be rich. That is how I've always felt living in Los Angeles. Not just the everyone is rich part, but that everyone is making movies or TV and everyone has my job. I keep painting because really, ultimately - I don't want most of those jobs. But just like JMB must have figured, it would be a hellofa lot better not to worry about what you're going to eat, let alone where.
Later, sitting at Musso's (after a cost-conscious meal at Kung Pao Kitty), Reuben our mixologist regaled us with tales of being hijacked by Sam Peckinpah to be his driver (and surely bartender) while filming Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid. Now here's a guy who's been working behind that bar for 37 years and has never been bitter at Hollywood -
just everything else.
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